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The Blueprint 3’s first single was a straight-up attack on the overuse of auto-tune in the music industry. The title is a play on the term D.O.A. which traditionally means “Dead on Arrival” and was used to send a message and “draw a line in the sand” about where rap was, and where it should be going. Notably, there is no auto-tune at all on The Blueprint 3.

Jay Z and Kanye West had a “Great Awakening” to the evils of auto-tune while making the album; they decided to dedicate a single to the cause and went back and erased all of the auto-tune that they had already (tee hee!) used on recorded tracks (Kanye used auto-tune throughout his 2008 album 808s and Heartbreak, which smells of hypocrisy, but you’d expect that from Kanye).

Jay Z has said the anti-auto-tune screed was inspired by Kanye’s suggestion that they collaborate on something thug to match the quality of the sample (“In the Space” by Janko Nilovic and Dave Sucky).
Yet another inspiration for the song was hearing auto-tune used in a Wendy’s commercial.

The song stirred up lots of controversy, with haters saying that Jay was too old and out of touch, while supporters stuck behind him and completely agreed with the message; Lil Waynepublicly stated that “There is no death of auto-tune. T-Pain is my dude”. Jay Z later clarified that “talented” musicians like Kanye are still allowed to use auto-tune (more hypocrite-smell).